finding values that begin with specific letter---getting error

[jenim514]

Hi!

I am trying to identify all values that do not begin with certain letters...and set them to missing.

    if patrank ne: ('E','W','O','C','U') then do;
            patrank='';
        end;

THis gave me an error...

3616              if patrank ne: ('E','W','O','C','U') then do;
                                     -                      --
                                     388                    180
                                     200
ERROR 388-185: Expecting an arithmetic operator.

ERROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order.

ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

3617              patrank='';
3618          end;
              ---
              161
ERROR 161-185: No matching DO/SELECT statement.

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

Try in

  if patrank in : ('E','W','O','C','U') then do;

[ballardw]

Or:

data example;
   input patrank $;
   if not ( patrank in : ('E','W','O','C','U') ) then call missing(patrank);
datalines;
This
Other
words
Can
use
Word 
case
;
run;

is the comparison supposed to be case sensitive? If you want to match "case" as well as "Can" then use upcase(patrank) in the comparison.